Lightening Online

Hello everyone!  As I compose this, we are at Hallidays Point where we are spending a day or so R&R before heading into Sydney.  Farmboys back is still not great and I have a cold so we’re a bit of a sorry bunch.  Happy Hallidays caravan park has heaps for the kids to do though so it’s not all bad.

Here are a few theme park photo’s to give you a glimpse into our time there.

Lover of the “big thrill” rides:

The Sea World Polar Bears were a favourite!!!!

My little helicopter pilot:

Our very first theme park activity was to watch the Stunt Drivers performance at movie world.  I enjoyed it so much that I could have gone home that moment a very satisfied customer.  We ended up watching the show 3 times over the course of our visits - I think it was Trailer Boys favourite part of the theme parks.

I am SO in LOVE with this dress….

Singstar Princess was chosen to go on stage at the Sesame Street show.  A great memory for her I’m sure!

This was the first ride we went on.  It was in the Looney Tunes section so I figured it was a kids ride and “how scary could it be”?  Well, it was more scary than I expected!!!!

I was quite surprised at the scary rides I did go on.  Usually that’s just not my thing.  But my favourite ride of all time still hasn’t changed…..

For those of you in or near Sydney, we are organising a meet-up while we are there.

Details are:

Friday 2nd October 2009
10.30am - 12.30ish
Lillies on the Park Cafe, Bicentennial Park (which is part of Olympic Park or something like that - I have no idea, never been to Sydney)

To assist with booking, it would be preferred if those coming could RSVP either by leaving a comment on this post or getting in touch with Wendy at Food From Afar.  That way we can book a table or two if there are going to be a few of us.  Otherwise Wendy and I will have a lovely coffee with each other.

If you have any questions, probably best to ask Wendy as she’s organising this for me.  Thanks Wendy.

Hope to meet you there!

Our very first stop in Queensland was at Goondiwindi.

That was where Farmboy hurt his back.

Putting his socks on!

Our very last stop in Queensland was Kirra Beach (Coolangatta).

Guess who hurt his back again?

This time playing cricket on the beach.

*sigh*

The poor thing is in a LOT of pain.

So far we’ve seen 1 chiropractor, 2 physiotherapists and 1 doctor.

The verdict?

A bulging disc.

The second time worse than the first.

As it happens.

We’ve decided there must be some problem with the border!

And speaking of the border, who on earth decided to make it such an unusual shape?  Can anyone shed any light on WHY the Qld/NSW border is the way it is???

I have to laugh (to myself of course) at the number of people who have asked us where our tv is in the caravan.

It’s not uncommon for people to have a look through your van and the first question seems to commonly be “where’s the tv?”

Ummm….we don’t have one.  How’s that for a novel idea?

If it’s not “where’s the tv?”, it’s “how is your tv reception?” or “have you had any trouble setting up your tv aerial?”  They’ve obviously not taken the time to notice we don’t HAVE ONE.

For crying in a bucket peoples, is it not possible to go away for a few weeks (or a few months) WITHOUT A TV?????

And to top it all off, the other day a couple of older blokes told our kids off for PLAYING SOCCER because they couldn’t hear their TV?????  Who does that?????  Shouldn’t we be applauding kids for getting out and getting active???

*SIGH*

The funny thing is, we set out with the thought that if we really missed having a tv, we could get one along the way.

I was keen to go with no tv, Farmboy wasn’t 100% convinced.

He is now.

We haven’t even missed it!

When we first left home, we watched masterchef occasionally on the caravan park tv.  And I think the boys watched about half a game of AFL the other day in the laundry (was closer than the rec room tv).  And I think we might even try to find somewhere to watch the AFL grand final.

But, other than that we really haven’t missed it.

To the extent that one morning we thought we’d send the kids off to the camp kitchen (which was really close) to watch some Saturday morning kids shows.  They latest less than 10 minutes before they came back bored and wanting to play with their toys rather than watch tv.

YAH!!!!  You have to be happy with that outcome!!!! 

The great thing about a 14 day superpass is that you can relax and enjoy each theme park instead of trying to cram it all into a single day.

The not so great thing about a 14 day superpass is that in an attempt to squeeze the absolute BEST value out of it it IS possible to get absolutely SICK of the sight of theme parks!!!!  LOL.

Not the kids though.

I think they could go there every day for a year and never get bored or sick of it. 

The 3 parks we’ve been visiting are Sea World, Wet n Wild and Movie World.  Of the 3, Movie World has definitely been my favourite.  It has such a great atmosphere.

But to be honest, I’ll be somewhat relieved I think when our 14 days are up and I don’t feel “compelled” to go to another theme park just because we can.

On the other hand, I guess there will also be some sadness that our “mega fun” is over.

I wonder if my kids will ever appreciate what an amazing childhood they are having.  I never went to anything like this as a kid.  In fact, our holidays generally consisted of going to stay with family members because we couldn’t afford anything else.

I know I’ve been really slack on the photo front.  It’s busy here and getting computer time is getting harder and harder.  I might have to do a big catch up on trip photo’s when we finally get home at this rate.  Sorry.

We had a rather interesting experience today when we agreed to attend an Accor Vacation Club preview.

It all started rather innocently when a stand at Movie World offered us a $100 spending voucher.  Now, who wouldn’t say “yes” to that offer?  Not sure why alarm bells didn’t start ringing about a catch right from the start.  LOL.

The guy at the theme park did a good “sell job” on us, pointing out they only wanted a small amount of our time (maximum 90 minutes) in return for this “thank you” gift.

In all honesty, I had a genuine interest in what they had to offer.  He wasn’t really specific in what it was all about other than it was a vacation club.  I figured it could be anything from a low priced loyalty type card to a larger priced package deal but we wouldn’t know without going.

In fact, I was even a little bit excited at the thought.

MOST of the presentation was interesting and enjoyable.

Sadly, things didn’t go so well when we said we weren’t prepared to sign away as much money as they were talking without having a day or so to think it over.  We just don’t tend to be spontaneous enough to sign away so much money on the spot.  It would seem they don’t allow for that at all.  :(  I guess I can understand it given the whole “if they walk out the door you don’t have the deal”.

I guess then, they don’t have a deal.

Then we were told how much it cost to do the presentation which to me seemed a little bit rude given we were asked to give them our time and we did that.  We kept an open mind and we were even genuinely interested in what they had to offer.

But between the pressure to sign on the dotted line on the spot and the fact that we’ve just spent quite a bit on this trip (so more likely to be interested in 6-12 months time than right now) we just couldn’t come at it right now.

We were, however, considering the option of doing something in the not too distant future.  So it was disappointing to leave with a bad taste in our mouth.  It doesn’t make good business sense to me.  Many people need 2-3 times of hearing about something before they make the jump.  So, putting the screws on and trying to use a bit of emotional blackmail doesn’t really help the companies reputation in the long term. 

Add to that, our “90- minute presentation” went for over 2 hours.  And that was with Farmboy moving her along in several spots.  Our poor kids were waiting to go to Sea World (and were at least in a kids club so not totally bored).

Then we had to pay for our “free parking” because they only gave us validation for 2 hours and we were there longer than 2 hours. 

I guess you live and learn.

So, I’m curious.  Is anyone involved in this or a similar type club/ownership arrangement and do you like it?

Does anyone have any interesting things to share about experiences at such presentations?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I really shouldn’t be blogging tonight.  Not after a couple of glasses of pink champagne.  I might say anything and then regret it!!!  Or I might just fall asleep (a common occurence when I drink).

I’m one of those “glass and a half” kind of girls.  Only it’s really just 1/2 a glass with me.

I guess because I don’t drink on a regular basis.

So it’s taking me a LOT of effort to write this blog post through my fuzzy head.

I hope you appreciate it!!!  LOL.

We are having a great time on the Gold Coast.  I don’t have many photo’s because, let’s face it, who has time for taking photo’s when you’re at a theme park?  A camera becomes a kind of nuisance really.  Especially at wet n wild!!!!

On Wednesday we went to Movie World in the afternoon (kids wanted to do a tennis thing at the park in the morning).  It. Was. AWESOME!!!!  More awesome than I expected.  Not that I knew what to expect.  We packed a fair bit into the 4 hours we were there.

On Thursday we started the day at Wet n Wild then went to Movie World (very close by) for a couple of hours later in the day when we got sick of being wet.  It’s really only just warm enough for Wet n Wild here at the moment but we won’t let a little bit of coldness hold us back.  Well, not too much anyway.  I even surprised myself by going down 2 different water slides!!!!  I am so NOT a water slide person.

In fact, I’m not really a “thrill seeker” AT.  ALL.  So I’ve been surprising myself with the rides I’ve been going on.

Of course, I have had 2 turns on the Merry-Go-Round as well.  That’s my kind of ride!!!! 

Today (Friday) we spent the day at the park.  The kids did a mini golf tournament this morning and made fathers day gifts this afternoon.  I got to do some shopping at Harbour Town this morning too which was fun. 

Tomorrow we’re off to Sea World.  I think I’ll try to take the camera this time to get at least a few photographs.  I’ve taken over 1000 photo’s so far this trip.  That’s a LOT for me who isn’t really the worlds best photographer.

Our week on the Sunshine Coast went so quickly.  There’s plenty to do but we were also in need of a break so made sure we spent a couple of days through the week just chilling in the caravan park.  The park we stayed in (Dicky Beach) was close to the beach and we figured taking in the sunshine and the coast was as much a way of experiencing the Sunshine Coast as anything else.  The weather was lovely for most of the week (with 1 cooler day where it rained).

We couldn’t visit the Sunshine Coast without a visit to the Big Pineapple, no matter how tired people were telling us it was.

We didn’t find it too bad other than the fact that they wanted to charge us $70 to do 2 tours of around 25 minutes each which seemed expensive.  We chose to do the Macadamia tour and skip the pineapple tour (funny when you’re at the big pineapple I know but it was the cheaper of the 2).

Lleyton enjoyed cracking the macadamia nuts with a hammer:

We also splurged on some fruit sundaes from the eating area:

After we left the Big Pineapple, we visited a strawberry farm where the kids enjoyed picking strawberries:

And eating them of course:

AUSTRALIA ZOO

We spent a day at the Australia Zoo.  To be honest, we’re feeling a little bit “zoo-ed” out but you can’t go to the Sunshine Coast and NOT visit can you?  It helped that we met up with friends and they gave us plenty of “inside tips” and made it an enjoyable day.

Highlights included:

The Tiger Show:

Feeding an elephant:

And seeing my friends husband at work (he’s just started there):

UNDERWATER WORLD

We weren’t 100% sure whether to do Underwater World at Mooloolaba or the Sydney Aquarium.  We found a discount voucher online for Underwater World which made the entry free quite a bit cheaper so we decided to go there.  It was a fabulous day and we went with another family which also made it great.

We really enjoyed the seal show they put on.  It was hilarious and the seals SO cute!!!!

We’ve now left the Sunshine Coast and moved down to the Gold Coast where we have plenty of R&R planned as well as doing the theme parks. We’re here for 17 nights which I imagine will seem like quite a long time compared to all our moving.  Or maybe it’ll just fly by like the rest of the trip!